Ad Spending on Academy Awards More Than $650 Million over the Past 10 Years

by Jack Loechner, Feb 25, 2008, 8:15 AM

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Ad Spending on Academy Awards More Than $650 Million over the Past 10 Years

As a retrospect on advertising on the Academy Awards show, TNS Media Intelligence has compiled key figures and trends on the past ten years of Academy Awards advertising.

Often referred to in advertising circles as "the Super Bowl for women", the event continues to be a marquee franchise for advertisers. According to TNS Media Intelligence, marketers have spent over $650 million during the past decade to advertise during the live network TV broadcast of the awards ceremony.

Over the past 10 years, the price of a :30 second spot in the Academy Awards has increased by 75 percent, reaching $1.67 million in 2007. Total ad spend in the show has almost doubled during this period. The cost of a :30 unit in the ceremony has consistently been about 35 percent less than the Super Bowl.

Academy Awards Advertisingrates And Spending (1998-2007)
Year	:30 Unit Cost ($000)	Total Ad Spend ($ millions)
1998	$950	$40.9
1999	1,000	$48.0
2000	1,305	$61.3
2001	1,450	$61.6
2002	1,290	$63.2
2003	1,355	$65.0
2004	1,503	$78.2
2005	1,503	$72.1
2006	1,647	$80.7
2007	1,666	$80.0
Source: TNS Media Intelligence, February 2998

The aggregate spending from a short list of blue-chip advertisers, representing a diverse range of categories, accounted for $381.2 million, or over 60 percent of the total amount, during the past ten Academy Award shows.

Top Advertisers In The Academy Awards (1998-2007)
Rank	Advertiser	Ad Spend($millions)	# of Years With Ads In The Show
1	General Motors	$97.1	10
2	Pepsico	60.7	7
3	American Express	60.5	10
4	JC Penney	52.8	7
5	L'Oreal	29.0	4
6	McDonalds	28.8	10
7	Mastercard	27.6	6
8	Coca-Cola	24.6	3
Source: TNS Media Intelligence, February 2998

On average, over the past ten years, 75 percent of the yearly ad spend in the telecast has come from advertisers who bought time the previous year. This is a higher retention level than the 63% the Super Bowl achieves (63 percent), says the report.

As viewing choices continue to expand, the TV audience continues to splinter and ratings get smaller. The Academy Awards telecast has not been immune to this trend. Audience levels have declined by about 25 percent over the past decade, and the long-term trend is unmistakably downward, as it is for TV programming in general.

TV Audience Level Changes
	Academy Awards		Super Bowl
Year	HH % Rating	Index	HH % Rating	Index
1996-1998	30.9%	100	44.6%	100
1999	28.6	93	40.2	90
2000	29.2	95	43.3	97
2001	26.2	85	40.4	91
2002	25.4	82	40.4	91
2003	20.4	66	40.7	91
2004	26.0	84	41.4	93
2005	25.4	82	41.1	92
2006	22.9	74	41.5	93
2007	23.0	75	42.0	94
2008	---	---	42.0	94
Source: TNS Media Intelligence analysis of Nielsen Media Research data, February 2008

In recent years, the show has been averaging 9-10 minutes of network ads per hour. This amount includes 7-8 minutes of paid messages with the remainder being promotional plugs from the network for its own programming. The comparable figure for the Super Bowl is 10.5 -12.0 minutes per hour and for a typical hour of prime time network programming it is 14-15 minutes.

In a typical year there are several advertisers who run spots in both the Academy Awards and the Super Bowl - one-fourth to one-third of Academy Awards advertisers also bought time in the Super Bowl.

Shared Advertisers:Academy Awards And Super Bowl
Year	# Of Advertisers In The Academy Awards	# That Also Aired Spots In The Super Bowl	% Overlap
2003	17	7	41%
2004	19	6	32%
2005	19	6	32%
2006	17	4	21%
2007	15	4	27%
Source: TNS Media Intelligence, February 2998

However, notes the report, every four years, the Winter Olympics provides advertisers with a third option to the Academy Awards and the Super Bowl. This was the case in 2006, where many perennial mutual Oscars and Super Bowl advertisers opted out of one of these events in favor of the Olympics.

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